52 
ANIMAL LIFE ON THK 
whole body is thrown upon the victim in order to open up 
the tardy but powerful jaws, and the whole carcass gradually 
disappears from view ; and after the ruminating, or rather 
in this case excavating, process of the curiously constructed 
mouth is undergone, the shell, stripped of every particle of 
the dainty morsel, is contemptuously ejected. While this is 
going on, the little crab is making frantic efforts to escape, 
having seemingly no desire for the light; but possibly the 
presence of such a powerful foe is troubling him not a little. 
Hold there, master crab ! You are going the wrong way. 
Ah ! you have done for yourself, we fear. You have ran 
into the arms of your Philistine. One, two, three suckers 
are upon him, and now he struggles. See how he strains 
his crab legs to be free ; a sudden jerk, and the hold of the 
half-formed vacuum of one arm is undone; another jerk, and 
a second is gone, and with a third and supreme effort he is 
free. The attention paid to the swallowing of a neighbour 
saved master crab; catch him now going within the reach of 
harms way. Oh, no ; he has learned a lesson he will 
remember better than very many human beings. Warily 
he turns away when nearing the enemy on either side, and 
at times pauses for a moment as if to throw epithets at 
the hated foe, then beats a precipitate retreat. 
The structure of this creature is one of the wonders of 
the deep. The mouth, situated on the centre of the under 
side of the shell, is an instrument of the most elaborate 
mechanism. So difficult is it to describe, that even with 
the help of the accompanying diagram, scant justice can 
only be done to the intricate and beautiful construction. 
In the five lesser bands stretching from the vent on the 
crown to the mouth below the holes through which the 
sucker arms protrude, run across in pairs of three in a 
diagonal line, each alternate band having their holes cast at 
